wfn.org | Communications Resolution

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3323 notes).

Note 3316 by UMNS on Dec. 4, 1996 at 16:47 Eastern (5778 characters).

SEARCH: resolution, network, UMAC, communications, cable,
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Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
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CONTACT: Linda Green                             604(10-71B){3316}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470              Dec. 3, 1996

NOTE TO EDITORS:  Please replace UMNS Story 591 {3305} with the
following:

Communicators ask that church's public media
efforts not be limited to Odyssey cable network

     
     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- Action was taken here Nov. 23 by members
of the United Methodist Association of Communicators (UMAC) asking
United Methodist Communications (UMCom) to "consider other uses of
electronic media beyond the Odyssey Cable Network."
     The action came in response to an earlier decision by the
governing body of UMCom to produce 39, 30-minute "News Odyssey"
programs for the cable network in 1997. A pilot of the program was
shown to the communicators here.
     A motion introduced by the Rev. Ken Horne, Charlotte, N.C.,
commends UMCom for its leadership in developing programs for
public media and for supporting the concept of partnership with
annual conferences. However it "urgently" requested that the
communications agency consider using other electronic media to
tell the church's story.
     The action taken by UMAC stems from a resolution adopted by
the Southeastern Jurisdiction Association of Communicators on Nov.
8. The resolution, circulated here, recommends that the $1.4
million budgeted for "News Odyssey", be spent instead on spot
advertisements that can be placed on a variety of commercial and
cable channels.
      The motion approved here also requests that UMCom take to
the General Conference in 2000 a proposal for funding a major
public media communications effort to reach the unchurched.
     Earlier in the meeting, the communicators applauded the Rev.
Judy Weidman, staff executive of UMCom, when she said "I believe
it is time for communications to move out of the shadows and
assert its place as a priority, missional focus of this church."
     Weidman said the agency is creating an advisory group that
will look at options such as television spots.  "Experts tell us
if we were to do an adequate job in this area [TV spots] on the
national level, it would take $6 million a year," she said. 
"UMCom has a little over $2 million a year to do everything in
television.  So you see the gap."
     She asked for the communicators' involvement as the agency
seeks to develop a strategy for influencing the 2000 General
Conference.
     According to Horne, the Southeastern communicators were
"surprised" at the direction of the General Commission on
Communications and questioned whether the television show would
provide a strong United Methodist presence in broadcast media.  
     During the past two years, approximately eight annual
conferences in the nine-state Southeastern jurisdiction have
participated in a multi-year media campaign and placed television
and radio spots aimed at the unchurched. 
     The Southeastern Jurisdiction awarded $50,000 in 1995 and
1996 to the jurisdictional association of communicators for spot
advertisement and the money was distributed to the annual
conferences as grants for media placement.
     Cathy Farmer, communications staff member of the Memphis
Conference, expressed doubt that a show on the Odyssey network
would reach the unchurched. "I think we'll be talking to the choir
members," she said.
     The resolution approved by the Southeastern communicators
said the show's cable location "is not recognized as the most
effective means of reaching the unchurched and marginalized."  
     To be launched in February, News Odyssey would not explicitly
promote the United Methodist Church, but would serve a larger
religious community and society by showing how religion affects
and is affected by newsworthy issues, said Wil Bane, UMCom's
director of public media.
     News Odyssey is acknowledged by UMCom as a departure from
what has been done in the past, according to Bane. "We are trying
to produce programming that attracts viewers who have no
association with an organized church and who get their information
and form their values primarily from television. It is a step
forward to use news events to help explore religious and faith
issues, thus enabling the church to be part of the public moral
discourse."
     Earlier the Rev. Thomas Boomershine, professor of New
Testament at United Methodist-related United Theological Seminary,
Dayton, Ohio, told the UMAC members that only those churches that
take seriously the electronic culture in which they live will
survive and grow.
     He said the church's print-oriented communications system was
developed for a literate culture that is declining. The church
must recover its narrative story telling tradition, which
communicated the faith of the ancient Jews and Christians. Unless
the United Methodist Church changes the way it communicates the
gospel, church membership will continue to decline, he warned.
     Contrasting the literate culture of the church to the largely
electronic culture of the general population, Boomershine said the
present electronic communications revolution is the "largest
change since the development of writing."
     Another speaker, Kofi Asiedu Ofori, communications official
with the United Church of Christ here, and a communications
lobbyist, presented UMAC members with an overview of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996.
     He urged the communicators to lobby the video industry to
adopt a rating system that treats violence, language and sex
separately.

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